Different types of pre-employment testing can be implemented to receive real, quantified data to assist hiring decisions and eliminate the risk of hirers being fooled by mistruths or exaggeration.

FREMONT, CA: Pre-employment screening is an effective tool for hiring candidates, reducing the risk of bad hiring decisions. Based on the type of assessment, pre-employment testing can evaluate job-critical skills like coding or selling, soft skills like communication, an applicant’s potential to fit with company culture, emotional intelligence, integrity, etc. There are various types of pre-employment screening procedures, ranging from skills assessments to personality tests. The primary objective is always to predict on-the-job success despite significant differences in approaches to pre-employment testing.

Skills Assessments

Skills assessments, also called skills tests, are designed to observe how applicants perform tasks specific to businesses before they enter the workforce. A combination of technical skills like coding, accounting, or content writing and soft skills like critical thinking, teamwork, communication, and leadership determines successful hiring. Organisations find that even the best coder fails to make a good hire if they cannot work well with others or lack empathy or soft skills.

Skills tests need to be tailored to the specific responsibilities of an open position rather than developed as a standard skills assessment for every new hire in an organisation. A well-built test poses a variety of questions in different formats like open-ended and multiple choice and includes immersive experiences such as coding challenges.

Job Knowledge Tests

These tests are designed to measure a candidate’s theoretical knowledge in their area. Job knowledge tests are about theory and general knowledge, skills tests are about applying that knowledge. More simply, it is the difference between theory and practice. Job knowledge assessments are useful for determining a candidate's knowledge and experience in their field of interest. However, they operate without practical elements, thereby being unreliable predictors of on-the-job performance.

Personality Tests

Personality tests aid in identifying if a candidate fits in with the team or how they behave in a specific scenario. It measures attributes such as flexibility, ambition, openness to criticism, and work ethic. Few companies use personality tests to eliminate candidates with negative traits such as narcissism or inflexibility. It is also used to select extroverts and introverts according to the necessary personalities companies require. Furthermore, personality assessments provide recruit managers with information on critical aspects of management style to consider.

Integrity Tests

Integrity tests can apply to hiring for any position but are more useful when hiring for a role that requires trust. This includes people handling financial matters, working with sensitive data, health workers, and workers who have the potential to commit fraud and are frequently asked to undertake an integrity test. Overt and covert integrity questions are the two types of integrity test questions.

Integrity tests alleviate the possibility of hiring the wrong person for a position of trust. However, they do not help companies with fool-proof measures to protect them from fraud, theft, and other fatal behaviours. Integrity testing is associated with other screening methods like criminal record checks and workplace policies and procedures, including audits.